Jeoffrey

The first anime series Garo: The Carved Seal of Flames, was quite a pleasant surprise for me, so I was curious about this follow-up. Unfortunately, the second anime series, Garo: Crimson Moon, is quite disappointing. In the original first anime series, I gradually grew to like most of the characters, whereas, in this second anime series, I only got on with Semei. In Garo: The Carved Seal of Flames, I enjoyed the narrative and how the characters evolved throughout. In Garo: Crimson Moon, the narrative was incredibly predictable at times, and the character development was anything but interesting or original. Unlike Garo: The Carved Seal of Flames, this anime series has almost nothing original or interesting, or unpredictable going for it. Those things would give me at least some reason to give it a good rating. Plus, the last episode is so insanely shockingly garish that I am still reeling from it, and I definitely did not enjoy that. 3.5/10.

Investigator Kishou Arima was and is and will be just an amazing guy. Even when he was in school, he was the greatest investigator and a totally OP badass! In the Tokyo Ghoul universe, in fact, he is their version of Chuck Norris. I guess those are the impressions I took away from this OVA. Otherwise, I liked the action-packed scenes; it has a pretty good narrative, even though I knew who the man-eating "ghoul" with the "pumpkin head" was from about halfway through. As I wrote about Tokyo Ghoul √A, I just quite liked this action-packed and violent show. Still, after saying all that, this OVA is not that great, and as far as the main plotline is concerned, it could be more of a "filler" waiting for the third season. 6/10.

Magical Somera-chan is an anime series that managed to take absurdist humor to a very decent level. Each episode begins with very interesting information about a very interesting creature called Menoussoue. If you are wondering what this creature actually is, how important it is to the show’s narrative, and why you should actually care about it, then do not worry - you are not going to find out! Then, after a rather choppy theme tune, you are introduced to Somera Nonomoto’s sister and her friends and their very unusual stories indeed. These are usually an episodic collage with all sorts of really very absurd and totally off-the-wall messages that sometimes had me amused, other times totally mesmerized me, and at times I felt like banging my head on the table at their stupidity. In other words, I have seen very little more crap than I could fit into such a short anime series, although surprisingly enough, it was not boring, offensive, or annoying. More interestingly, I had fun! In the end, there was always a completely insane ending with various variations, although I also enjoyed it a lot and looked forward to it every episode. The animation, by general standards, should probably be pretty bad too; however, - I liked it. So I can understand anyone who says it is a terrible show. I can also understand anyone who says this show is the biggest piece of crap in the world; however, and this is the most absurd part of it all, I am just going to enjoy it anyway. 7.5/10.

In my opinion, Japanese "Bones" suffer from a fundamental shortcoming: some scenes do not make any sense at all. For example, I learned that Japanese police officers probably do not carry weapons, and if they do, even if someone seriously stabs them, they do not simply draw them and send the person to hell in a handbasket (or at least they do not injure them). Then again, in the first episode, I learned that getting to a crime scene in Japan is apparently no problem at all, and the police will let you do almost anything. I was also rather disappointed with the first episode, where I more or less learned what happened and how it happened, but the questions of who and why were not answered. I guess I live under the delusion that crime should always be properly explained in a crime drama. The cases are quite interesting, and the investigation has a bit (unfortunately, really only a bit) of the right atmosphere. However, I now see certain underdevelopment and failure to develop the last storyline as the biggest problem. If some stronger hints that some cases are connected and that someone is behind them and maybe has an interesting motive had been shown and handled much better, this could have been a suspenseful and interesting show. However, the anime's creators have just relatively dryly introduced us to the fact that someone is behind it. With the few hints that have been dropped, which other sub-plots have covered up too much, I have to accept that fact and not get excited about it. And so I waited for the final episode, and my suspense was practically nil, and all I had left was a bit of curiosity about how it would turn out, which is just an incredible shame. Plus, SPOILER ALERT; the conclusion did not wrap anything up. Rather, it just offered some love story stuff, so all that suspense and building a more serious storyline took a back seat. Well, if this is a sign that there will be another series where the writers focus on Sakurako's fight with the mysterious "Hanabusa," then I'll give it another chance. SPOILER ENDS As for the rest, I quite like the main characters. In my opinion, it is nice to have a woman in her prime as the main female protagonist and present her as an original and interesting character. Although I liked his relationship with Sakurako, the main male protagonist was not as interesting. I like the visuals a lot, and the soundtrack has a rather positive effect on me. I think this could be an unfinished anime series with a lot of stuff that did not make any sense and that ended before it could become more interesting. On the other hand, it could be an introduction to be followed by another season, where they could have dealt the cards better. Some of that mysterious atmosphere could have been worked on, something the Japanese "Bones" and even viewers who have not yet gotten involved with them would definitely deserve. 5/10.

The confrontation between the world of pure, untouched virgins and ordinary life looks interesting at first sight. Unfortunately, the processing seems rather unrealistic to me. If the girls were this perfect, the ordinary world would have to destroy them! Furthermore, I cannot believe that they could keep the telephone, the internet, and the television hidden from the girls. It also surprises me that if they are supposed to be girls from Japanese high society, they know next to nothing about the culture and traditions of their country. Plus, girls who have eaten the most exquisite dishes would not declare instant noodles the best gastronomic experience. Still, it is quite watchable, and the frequency of erotic tropes is not enough to bother me. It also has a sort of peaceful feel and a relatively pleasant atmosphere. On the other hand, it is quite predictable. However, it is a harem anime series, so you know where it is heading. The main male protagonist is just an "ordinary" guy, although he does not act like a complete jerk, and I found some of the moments when he makes fun of the girls quite hilarious. However, what amazes me is that the girls eat everything up so easily; no one can be that stupid (or maybe naive)! Also, those situations where the main male protagonist does something clumsy and all the girls look at him and think how awesome it is are stupid. I quite like the animation, and the soundtrack is sometimes quite good, although, at other times, I was not too fond of it. I will throw in some more points for the very cute Hakua. However, in the end, I only feel that this is a tolerable average. 5/10.

I am not impressed. Detective fiction set in everyday situations does not appeal to me much, and I do not enjoy solving whodunnits about "who stole my bicycle?". At the same time, it seems nice that most of these trivialities turned out to be much more complex cases. At the time, I found it more unrealistic than interesting. The characters are varied. However, I do not find them particularly distinctive, and they certainly do not inspire any great sympathy in me. The animation seems pretty simple to me, and the soundtrack seems inobtrusive. Overall, I find it more like a kind of entertainment for small kids, which I am rather bored with. However, at the same time, it is quite watchable, and nothing was really annoying about it. However, I was not very amused either. 4/10.

In my opinion, YuruYuri San☆Hai! is funnier than the previous (second) season YuruYuri♪♪ and the third episode is very close to the standards of the first season. Again it has some great moments; for example, the opening of the second episode with the spider amused me a lot, even though there are some parts that I did not find so amusing or interesting, which is a bit of a pity. Still, I am quite glad that this bunch is back, and I found it quite entertaining, and it is still just as cute. 7.2/10.

Apart from the fact that it is mainly about "girl action," the word "oppai" must be used in this review. However, I must admit that I was surprised by one thing about this oppai. The anime’s creator has obviously saw some oppai in real life and therefore understood the important fact that every woman has different ones. Oppai can vary not only in size, as shown in erotica and hentai anime (while the vast majority give them pretty much the same shape and as large a size as possible), but also in shape, tan, or the size and shape of nipples. In other words, there is a really large variety of different oppai, and fans of this part of the female body will probably find as much to their liking as yuri fans. There are almost as many sex scenes between the girls as topless oppai. Unlike much clichéd ecchi anime series, these feel like erotica and not just a confluence of unfortunate coincidences. So, in addition to the oppai groping, we get some kissing and other various sexual acts. The good news for oppai fans is that the first episode was uncensored, so it is possible that this trend will continue, and you can enjoy oppai in all its glory. Otherwise, the rest is pretty much a bunch of tropes with a hint of a narrative about the cleavage depth of twelve-year-old Lolita girls, and this one is probably just there anyway, so it is not all about yuri and topless oppai. The characters and animation were not impressive, and all those oppai were not enough to satisfy me. Dropped after the first episode because I watch anime series mainly for the narrative and not for the oppai. I am not going to rate; I am going to leave this to other connoisseurs and if you think I have repeated the word oppai too many times in this review, then check out this show, and you will find there are a lot more.

It is certainly commendable that the anime's creators want to show cheap and easy recipes that everyone can really use. This is a kind of Japanese, and I think perhaps a better version of Czech TV chef Lada Hruska. Unfortunately, the animation is very weak, in my opinion, and the humor is very simple, almost childish, so there is not much amusement. On the other hand, I was quite impressed by how the anime's creators explained these shortcomings in the tenth episode in a fairly non-violent and quite funny and original way. I understand the low budget, and it is incredibly obvious, especially in the movement of the characters. The cuteness is supposed to provide us with chibi versions of the individual girls, but it only half works for me. I did not find the chibi cute but rather how the individual chibi characters move. Of the characters, I think I only liked Ruriko, who is interestingly goofy in places. However, once again, it is quite sad that they cannot use this potential of hers to its full potential and so, for example, the joke about the Neanderthal is made much more often than it should be and, as the saying goes, "A repeated joke ceases to be a joke." The recipes look very simple indeed and, indeed, the few steps that lead up to the preparation of the food would probably be easy for anyone to follow. It is equally true that this is not much about gastronomy and that if I prepared something like this at home and threw it over to a chef of Jamie Oliver’s or Gordon Ramsay’s level, I would probably not get away with it. Still, I cannot say that this is the worst anime series of this winter's releases, as the ratings suggest, even though it is certainly not a hit as the girls try to tell us when watching "JC Meshi". However, I did not mind watching it, and it does not bother me that I wasted that time; however, I cannot see myself awarding more than two stars. 4/10.

Onsen yousei Hakone-chan is a little bit cute and a little bit funny. That is mostly thanks to the main female protagonist. The rest is average, sometimes even weaker. However, thanks to Hakone, I could watch it until the end without any problem, so I am awarding this 5.5/10.